Trends & importance of research in
current scenario :
Connect research &
Connected researcher
S G Deshmukh
ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management Gwalior
FDP on
Multivariate Data A alysis for Ma age e t Research 14 June 2013
Acknowledgement
This presentation is based on extensive
discussions/brain storming sessions with
– Prof R P Mohanty Prof S S Yadav, Prof Ravi Shankar, Prof M K
Tiwari, Prof R S Deshpande, Mr N Ratnaliikar, Dr Jitesh Thakkar
– Thankful to numerous research scholars and faculty
members from various institutes for making us realize
the trends and importance of research in current
scenario
2
Prelude
As a prelude, You may look at the presentation
given by me on 23 July 2012 at FDP on Multivariate
Data Analysis for Management Research at ABV-
IIITM Gwalior.
Available at
http://www.slideshare.net/SanjeevDeshmukh
/trends-inmgmtresearchjuly2012sgd
3
Speaking points..
Imperatives
About Research
Part I : Connect Research
– Connecting with oneself, institute, society
Part II: Connected Researcher
– Trend 1 : Collaboration
– Trend 2 : Emergence of social media
– Trend 3 : Alternative Metrics
Closing remarks..
4
ARC view of research
• Attributional
• Relational
• Classificational
• “our e: Deshpa de ‘ “, I stitute for “o ial & E o o i Cha ge, B lore
5
Research in pursuit of knowledge
• Attributional:
– Attributing a measurement (definition) to a
particular Concept.
• Growth, Leadership, Managerial Efficiency
• Relational:
– Relating a phenomenon with its determinants
• Explaining behaviour
• Classificational:
– Understanding by categorizing on the basis of some
indicators
• Taxonomy, Innovators Vs Followers, Leaders Vs Laggards 6
Some basic feature of research
process • Always involves bringing together three sets of things:
some content that is of interest
some ideas that give meaning to that content, and
some techniques or procedures by means of which those ideas and content
can be studied.
• These three sets of things more formally, as three distinct, though interrelated
domains:
The Substantive domain, from which we draw contents that seem worthy of
our study and attention;
The Conceptual domain, from which we draw ideas that seem likely to give
meaning to our results; and
The Methodological domain, from which we draw techniques that seem
useful in conducting that research.
7
Stepping into research
• Method and Methodology
– Method refers to the techniques and Methodology to the strategy
• Logic as an Essence of Philosophy
– Inference depends on the law of Causation
– Deductive and Inductive are methods Non Exclusive
– Structuralism as the holistic approach
• Why Philosophy?
– In Search of Knowledge, Understanding of Nature and Meaning of Universe.
– Creation of Theories OR Universality about Basic things.
– In-depth knowledge of a phenomenon
8
Two models : AROHA and AVAROHA
A - Algorithm
A – Approach V - Variables
R – Review A - Arrangement
O - Objectives R - Results
H - Hypothesis O - Objectivity
A - Analysis H – Humanistic
A – Analytical Rigour
9
Source: Deshpande R S, Institute for Social & Economic Change, B’lore
How to get into a research topic?
• Searching for new evidence from facts and concluding with a new hypothesis.
• It should be net addition to the existing knowledge or at least a new interpretation of that.
• It should be crystal clear in its meaning.
• It should have a hypothesis which is not a statement of existing facts.
• It should be empirically analyzable.
10
How it Should be?
• It should be amenable to the resources at the control of the researcher.
• It must match with the time and budget of the researcher.
• It must allow critical appraisal and stand to the rigourous testing.
• Debate on a topic is different from research, former poses two different points of views whereas, the later provides test of a hypothesis.
• It should be ethically correct. 11
15
12
Some aspects of boundary • Discipline Boundary
• Time or Resource Boundary
• Information or Data Boundary
• Contextual boundary
• These boundaries may affect
connectivity !
Observation:
Researchers and research quality
• The profile of researchers in the country is by
and large not very promising
• There is a disconnect between researcher and
his research
• Disconnect between researcher in India and
the Global community
• Not able to penetrate into high quality
original/novel research as recognized by the
international community
Current scenario..
• Collaborative focus
• Interdisciplinary push
• Immediacy factor
• Need for visibility
• Suited to addressing socio-economic
imperatives
• Openness (process, findings, outputs)
Starting points.
• E er thi g is o e ted to e er thi g else
• Connected world view
– E a led i tri si desire to e o e ted – Enabled by research
– Enabled by IT
Two views..
• Classical view
– Research in isolation
– Research is
compartmentalized
– No sharing
• Contemporary view
– Research is connected
– Research cannot be
done in isolation
– Research has to be
connected to society?
Connecting with oneself
• Identify your strengths
• Leverage these strengths
• Develop your research theme
• Develop your glossary
• Develop/use appropriate methodology
• Internalize research (RS must absorb deeply
into the process so that the topic becomes
part of his genetic code or DNA )
Connecting with institution/university
• Understand the research profile of your
institute/university
• Develop friendship /affiliation with other
researchers of the institute/university
• There is an established repository of
knowledge and systemic procedure
embedded in the institute: follow that
• Attempt to fit yourself in the bigger picture
Connecting with industry
• Transfer of knowhow from you to industry
• Understand and appreciate needs of industry
• Establish a dialogue with industry
– E a ple of Vipul Gupta s Ph D ith JK T res
• Invest in some confidence building exercises
• Get feedback and give back your deliverables
Connecting with society
• What is the relevance of your research to
society
• Societal view ?
• Ask some embarrassing questions
– Is my research really relevant to society ?
– Is my research going to change quality of life?
• Keep reflecting on these questions and you
yourself will come out with answers, may be
after getting Ph D !
Part II
Connected Researcher
Trend 1 : Collaboration !
• Sharing of information
• Institutional
collaboration
• Professional networks
• Social networks
Implications
• Sharing of information/Knowledge made easy
• Ope sour e paradig • You must collaborate
• Your collaborator may be anywhere in the
globe!
• Be comfortable with power & influence of
social media !
• ‘esear h . ?
Remark..
New digital technologies are predisposing scholars to an open scholarship of content, knowledge and lear i g (Katz, 2010).
24
Types of scholarly resources
• E-journals
• Reviews
• Pre-prints and working papers
• Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and annotated content
• Data
• Blogs
• Discussion forums
http://www.arl.org/sc/models/models-pubs/search-form.shtml
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Trend 2: Social media
• Social media are tools for social interaction using
Web-based and mobile technologies (Wikipedia).
• These technologies, often referred to as Web 2.0 ,
provide services that support users in generating
and publishing their own content.
• The social interactions developed as a result of
this activity can support engagement with
communities of practice through networking and
other co-operative and collaborative practices.
Connected researcher and social
media • Idea of o e ted resear her is ot alie -
Researchers have always exchanged, shared and
disseminated information through various media:
brain storming sessions, conferences, workshops,
symposiums, doctoral consortia etc,
-Researchers have always built a network of peers,
friends, seniors
• Range of social media tools to facilitate and
support existing behaviours and practices –
– easy and free to use, user friendly !
Social media and researchers
• Use of social media becoming more
widespread amongst researchers
- Social Media : a guide for Researchers
published in February 2011 by RIN -
Digital Researcher Days run by Vitae at the
British Library
Why use social media? ..1..
• Help to build your research profile – sho ase ourself and your work thus facilitating visibility – Allows to build network, Help to explore and leverage research opportunities
Help to get early feedback
– Facilitate your online visibility
• Enhances research - according to CIBER (2010) – Disseminating findings, Identifying Research Opportunities
– Finding collaborators
• “o ial edia prese ts so e opportu ities for etter, faster resear h a d disse i atio CIBE‘
CIBER. 2010. Social media and research workflow? http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/Charleston-2010.pdf
Brabazon, T. 2010. A community of scholars.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=413384
Cann et al. 2011. Social Media: a guide for researchers. http://ht.ly/3TWiR
Why use social media? ..2..
• The connection with:
– Other researchers and Ph D students, both
internal and external
– Research community
– Experts
– Industry
– Society
• Growing need to communicate research
findings to public – these tools make it easier
Why use social media? ..3..
• May save time – use it to har est the isdo of ro ds a d fi d resour es through our et ork
• It a help o er o e the s dro e of isolatio of doi g resear h
• Engages you with a community that cares about
what you care about and in turn share with them
We do t ha e a hoi e o hether e do social
media, the question is how well we do it”. –
Erik Qualman
•
How to do it:
Your digital identity
Ha e a o li e prese e or digital footpri t
Institutional – e.g. information on
institute/university webpages (www.iiitm.ac.in)
Professional – e.g. LinkedIn profile, Academia ,
ReserarchGate
Social media - e.g. Facebook, Twitter
Slideshare , Authorstream
Digital Identity
• A hypothetical example
• Dr TechnoWatch
• Joined xxx in 1995;, a huge multinational.
• Technowatch Community (Leader since 2000 focusing on emerging trends, technologies, and
business issues.
• Current Title: Principal Resesrch Consultant - Social Insights, Corporate Market Insights
• My Identity
Profile = LinkedIn
Community =TechnoWatch
Blogs : Typepad = hhh ; Tumblr = pppp
Twitter ID = Technowatch
Facebook = pppzzz
Scopus Author Code : 17181009
Online presence considerations
• Use social media for your online identity
• Lots of tips available (e.g. Online Research
identity blog post)
• Google scholar citation profiles
Example: Blogs
Blogs are a great way to share information
– Test your ideas out with a wide audience
– Learn from others
– Form new relationships
– Build / manage your online personal brand
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Mendeley : Useful tool
• Mendeley is a free reference
Manager and academic social network that can
help organize research, collaborate with others
online, and discover the latest research.
– Automatically generate bibliographies
– Collaborate easily with other researchers online
– Easily import papers from other research software
– Find relevant papers ased o hat ou re readi g
– Access your papers from anywhere online
www.mendeley.com
36
Characteristics of CR
• Connected researcher is IT savvy
• Connected researcher spend more time online
compared to an average researcher
• Connected researcher responds positively to
criticism
• Connected researcher is positively engaged
with the topic
• Connected researcher is also a Contended
researcher 37
Connected research community
Amar Amik Garg
Bakshi
KVS Rao
Sharad
Tripta
Anandan Prof. Sastry
Venkie
Prof Ajit Verma
Prof. Brahma
Prrof Biswas
Prof. G Kaushik
Dr. A D Garg
Ravi
R S Dalu
Avneet
Vipul
Prof. Vargheese
Ramamoorthy
Murali
Prof. Nirmal
Prof. Prateek
Jyoti
Shankar
Prof. Subramanyam
Prof. Veni
Research Scholar
How Emerald measures impact*?
• Citations
• Usage
• Inclusion of research in courseware/
Training material
• Media comment
• Implementation in Practice
• Transformation of Research for new audience
• Awards
*Source http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/impact/index.htm
Impact zones of research Source: Emerald Insight
Trend 3: Altmetrics altmetrics is the creation and study of new metrics based on the Social Web for analyzing, and informing scholarship. www.altmetrics.org
• Supplement to traditional peer-reviewed metrics
• Looks at downloads
• Crowdsource peer-re ie
• Many tools currently available: – Google Scholar Profile/citations
– Mendeley
– Total-Impact
– ReaderMeter
Mobile apps for researchers
• Research will go mobile
• ZappyLab is pioneer in creating an ecos-
system which is useful, practical and foolproof
• Currently for medicines..
• http://www.authoraid.info/resource-library
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Closing remarks..
• To be effective researcher, one must be able
connect research with
• Oneself
• Institute
• Industry
• Society
• In contemporary world, researcher must also
be connected . For this Social media offers an
interesting scope
43
References
Bozalek V, N’gambi D & Gachago D (in press) Emerging Technologies in South
African HEIs: Institutional enables and constraints
Eysenbach G (2011) Can Tweets Predict Citations? Metrics of Social Impact Based
on Twitter and Correlation with Traditional Metrics of Scientific Impact. Journal of
Medical Internet Research 13(4). Available at: http://www.jmir.org/2011/4/e123
Thorin SE (2003) Global changes in scholarly communication. In SC Hsianghoo, PWT
Poon and C McNaught (eds) eLearning and Digital Publishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/w873x131171x2421/
Waldrop M (2008) Science 2.0: Great new tool, or great risk? Scientific American.
Available at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=science-2-point-0-
great-new-tool-or-great-risk
References
• Digital Researcher http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/315321/Digital-
Researcher.html
• Cann, A., Dimitriou, K., Hooley, T., "Social Media : A guide for researchers",
(February), 2011
http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-
media-guide-researchers
• Pegrum, M., "'I link therefore I am': network literacy as a core digital literacy", E-
learning and Digital Media 7(4), 346-354 2010 doi:10.2304/elea.2010.7.4.346
• Research Information Network, "If you build it, will they come? How researchers
perceive and use web 2.0", 2010
http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/use-
and-relevance-web-20-researchers
• iGoogle http://www.google.com/ig
• Google Reader http://www.google.com/reader
• Fellowship Down http://my.rsc.org/blogs/73
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